Mu Chun was too excited at this time, his soul was still floating in the air, and his body was like a vixen, coquettish and wild. Fortunately, Hu Shanwei was a specialist in collecting all kinds of evildoers, and he covered his mouth with one hand, "Flirting in front of the grave, the coffin lid of the father-in-law can hardly hold it down."
Thinking about the position of Mu Ying in his son's heart, Hu Shanwei added, "Don't look at the monk's face, look at the Buddha's face. Grandma's coffin is also in there."
This trick was as effective as a tight hoop. Mu Chun finally calmed down. He held Hu Shanwei's hand obediently, bowed three times at the grave, placed some flowers, tea, fruits, three animals and other offerings, and also offered wine.
Mu Chun raised a fist-sized jar of wine and said, "Dad, before you died, you said that whoever you married in the future, if she still cared about your kindness, she should take her new wife to the grave to burn a stick of incense and tell me her name. You gave me life twice. The first time was when I was born, and you planted a seed. The second time was when the Tusi rebelled and you used your body to block the bomb and saved me. You were paralyzed and died of serious injuries. Okay, you won. You did a lot of bad things in the past, such as hanging me in the ancestral hall when I was seven years old and whipping me until I was unconscious, but for the second time, you won.
For your sake, I'll bring my wife here to toast you a glass of wedding wine. Wife, come and introduce yourself."
Hu Shanwei raised a stick of incense and said, "Eunuch, my name is Hu Shanwei. I am thirty-five this year. My ancestral home is Jining, Shandong. My ancestors were once prosperous and several generations were officials. Later, my family fell into poverty and became a merchant family in the capital. My family runs a bookstore. I have been a copyist, a widow, engaged, and divorced. I have been a female official in the palace for fifteen years—"
Mu Chun gave Hu Shanwei a thumbs up and said, "Very good, you are worthy of being the woman I choose. Every word you say hits the nail on the head for my father. If my father were alive, he would probably get sick from being mad at you. Now that he is dead, maybe he will jump out of the coffin."
Indeed, Hu Shanwei's conditions were completely inconsistent with Mu Ying's expectations for his eldest son and daughter-in-law, and he stood in perfect opposition to the clan's wives.
"Shut up." Hu Shanwei gave her young husband a warning look, and the influence of the palace lady in the harem still remained.
Mu Chun shrank his neck. He had just gotten married, but he was already in the late stage of being dominated by his wife. There was no cure.
Hu Shanwei continued, "Mother-in-law, I have liked your eldest son Muchun for thirteen years. I once thought that I would spend the rest of my life in the palace and would never marry, but Muchun gave me the courage to walk out of the shadow of the past and fall in love again. When Muchun was seven years old, his father hung him up and beat him. He always said that it didn't matter, but he was actually very hurt in his heart. He and I have both been abandoned, so I understand his pain. I will comfort him and love him. Please rest assured, mother-in-law, the rest of his life is in my hands, and I will definitely treat him gently."
After hearing this, Mu Chun hugged Hu Shanwei tightly and said, "There is only one good wife in the world." His Sister Shanwei became Mrs. Shanwei, and the only thing that remained unchanged was their warmth. He hugged her for warmth.
After paying respects to the Mu family's grave, Mu Chun is about to go to the Hu family's grave. Mu Chun pays respects to his mother-in-law and prepares the same offerings as for his parents.
The Mu family's ancestral tomb was luxurious, occupying most of the Guanyin Mountain. The Hu family's merchant house was just an ordinary place, a little far from Guanyin Mountain, so Mu Chun drove the carriage with his newlywed wife.
Hu Shanwei's heart was surging. She sat next to her newlywed husband, leaning on his shoulder affectionately, holding his arm and chatting, "I always listen to the emperor and empress. You said that when you were seven years old, you made trouble in the ancestral hall and were hung up and beaten by your father. What did you do to make your father so angry that he would be so cruel as to kill a seven-year-old boy?"
This is an unsolved mystery. Now that they are married, Hu Shanwei wants to know more about her husband and the Mu family.
Mu Chun was vague, "Well... what little boy isn't naughty? He's seven or eight years old, even dogs hate him. My dad likes to make a fuss and cause trouble for me."
Looking for trouble with a seven-year-old boy? Hu Shanwei smelled a story here, "Husband and wife are one, there is nothing to hide, just tell me."
Mu Chun coughed twice, "Then I'll just say it straight..."
It turned out that when Mu Chun was seven years old, Empress Ma sent him out of the palace to reunite with his family. Mu Ying was often away on the battlefield and had no time to take care of him. His stepmother, Geng, did not dare to take care of him for fear of causing the emperor and empress's blame. The servants at home did not dare to take care of him even more. Mu Chun became naughty in various ways, running dogs and fighting cocks, climbing up the roof and tearing off tiles. When Mu Ying came back, he sharpened his spear and taught his son a lesson. He locked Mu Chun in the ancestral hall and made him recite the family rules. He was not allowed to come out until he finished reciting them.
Muchun is smart and could memorize it quickly, but he refused to do it! The little boy was rebellious. He refused to do anything I was asked to do.
Mu Ying wanted to establish his authority as a father, so he simply locked the door of the ancestral hall and refused to open it until he finished reciting the poem. This was how the father and son started to argue.
Geng was afraid that her stepson would be hungry or trapped, so she ordered people to send food, bedding, toilets and other daily necessities in through the window. Mu Chun had food and drink, and lived in the ancestral hall for three days, but he refused to carry his backpack.
The ancestral hall was a small place, and Mu Chun was so bored that he wanted to find a way out. He still had some bamboo firecrackers in his pocket that he had played with during the Chinese New Year. He thought, "You won't open the door, right? I'll blow the door open!"
Muchun lit the firecracker, stood in the corner, and threw it towards the door. Unfortunately, he was not strong enough and the firecracker fell into the toilet at the door.
Seven-year-old Muchun naively thought that if he closed the toilet lid, the fuse would be extinguished and everything would be fine.
And then... Boom!
Anyway, Mu Ying rushed to the ancestral hall after hearing the news. When he took out the key and opened the door, he found that the ancestral hall had been "freshly painted" by his eldest son, a little "painter". The scene was quite terrible, with both the roof and the walls plastered.
Mu Ying was furious and hung Mu Chun up and beat him for insulting his ancestors.
As soon as Mu Chun finished speaking, Hu Shanwei quietly let go of her hand, returned to the carriage, and closed the door. Mu Chun, who was driving the carriage in front, knocked on the door, "Hey, didn't you just say that you would treat me gently for the rest of your life?"
Hu Shanwei said: "Let me calm down first."
Fortunately, his mother-in-law saved Mu Chun's precarious marriage. When he arrived at his mother's grave, the sadness finally drove away the scene of the toilet stuck to the wall in his mind.
Hu Shanwei no longer remembers what his mother looked like. His memory of his mother is always of Chang Yuchun conquering Suzhou and leading his troops to massacre the city. A woman with a blurred face was crushed to the ground by the flood of refugees. She did not cry, but just shouted to her husband to quickly carry their daughter and flee, and not to worry about her.
Her father held her in his arms and hid in the Reclining Buddha Temple, escaping the disaster. When he returned to collect his wife's body for burial, he found the road littered with corpses that had been trampled into a paste, and it was impossible to tell who was who. In the end, he had to collect his wife's commonly used clothes, jewelry, and broken hair from her comb in a small box, and built a cenotaph to express his grief.
In the turbulent times, the two Wu kings in Jiangnan competed for supremacy, the gods fought, the devils suffered, and Chang Yuchun, who massacred half of Suzhou, died young at the age of 40, unable to protect his descendants. His daughter Chang was the crown princess and gave birth to the eldest son, but eventually lost her position as a concubine and heir. Zhu Yunwen, who was born as a concubine, was instead named the crown prince. The Chang family was suspected by Emperor Hongwu and the entire family was exterminated, except for a grandson who escaped and disappeared.
Hu Shanwei worked as a court lady in the palace for fifteen years. She witnessed with her own eyes the demise of the once most powerful family in the capital. She also turned into a handful of earth in the ground, the same fate as her deceased mother.
Hu Shanwei and Mu Chun bowed three times to their mother's grave and laid offerings. Hu Shanwei talked about his late mother's past and sighed, "Fame and fortune are like oil boiling in a raging fire and flowers blooming in a brocade. They seem to be infinite, but in fact they are all very limited. The emperor only needs to snap his fingers and half of the noble families in the capital will be wiped out. The emperor is old, and when the old and new regimes change in the future, there will inevitably be turmoil again."
This was the first time Mu Chun heard Hu Shanwei talk about his mother-in-law's death. He sighed, "No wonder you have always been indifferent to the East Palace. This is the reason. The emperor promised that I would fake my death and hand over power before the deadline. Then we will retire to the mountains together and take your family away in the chaos to prevent anyone from having evil intentions. I dare not talk about other places, but in Yunnan, there is no one I can't hide."
His uncle Feng Cheng and his entire family hid in Yunnan, changing their names to Ma. Even if Emperor Hongwu suddenly turned against him and wanted to wipe out the Feng family, it would be impossible.
Hu Shanwei was sensitive and asked immediately, "Yunnan is far away. Who have you been hiding all these years except for my uncle Feng Cheng?"
Mu Chun looked mysterious and said, "I can't tell you now. Anyway, don't worry. I have worked hard in Yunnan for many years and have a way out. Faking my death and handing over power is not the end, but the beginning. The old emperor was too suspicious in his later years and thought that he could solve all problems by killing. There are only three old noble families left in the capital. Duke Xin Tang and his family moved to Fengyang and have long since withdrawn from the capital's fame and fortune. There will be backlash in the future. Now with the old emperor above, it is not clear. When the crown prince succeeds to the throne in the future, it will be hard to say. I have paved the way for our future. No matter who becomes the emperor of the old Zhu family, I can protect the safety of my family."
Mu Chun's great-uncle Feng Sheng killed his entire family, even his two adopted daughters. This made him have to be wary of the old emperor's falling out and the unpredictable risks of future regime changes.
The 32-year-old Mu Chun is no longer the frivolous boy who could only survive by relying on the favor of the emperor and empress.
After hearing this, Hu Shanwei felt that her young husband was quite reliable and thoughtful. She suddenly became optimistic about her future life and said with a smile, "After three years of absence, one should look at him with new eyes."
Mu Chun held her in his arms. "I am worried that after three years, you and I will never be together again. I am afraid that the old emperor will turn against me, so I have to make a foolproof plan. He has done this before."
The various criminal records of Emperor Hongwu were simply too numerous to list, forcing Mu Chun to find a way out for herself. Hu Shanwei's face was pressed against her husband's chest, listening to his strong heartbeat, "It's the same for me. I have woken up from nightmares countless times in the past three years. I dreamed that the emperor turned against me and would not let me leave the palace. A palace wall separated you and me, and no one could answer my calls. It has been three days since the emperor granted me the marriage, and I still can't believe it. These three days have been like a dream. I am immersed in the dream and don't want to wake up."
The three articles of the Hongwu Emperor seemed too easy to Hu Shanwei. According to the old emperor's usual style of doing things, it seemed that he had a big trick up his sleeve. However, if the old emperor was so easily seen through, he would not be the great emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Because of this, Hu Shanwei felt uneasy even if he left the palace and got married at the grave.
Hu Shanwei is an extremely insecure person. She lost her mother in childhood, her fiancé in teenage, and her father who depended on her for survival fell out with her because of her resistance to marriage in her youth. She lost her life mentor, Empress Xiaoci, during her career rise, and Concubine Duanjing, who assisted her, during her career heyday. Therefore, her life is always about trying to get the best, and then losing.
Therefore, Hu Shanwei was somewhat skeptical about his sudden happiness.
In fact, Mu Chun also had this feeling. Emperor Hongwu had been using Hu Shanwei to keep him hanging, just like a donkey pulling a mill with a carrot hanging in front of it, making him work hard for the Zhu family. Now that the carrot was in his bowl, he felt a little uneasy.
However, as a husband, even if he feels uneasy, he must hide his feelings and establish an image of trustworthiness and reliance in front of his wife so that she can live a stable life.
Mu Chun is different from all the people who have entered Hu Shanwei's life before. His father chose the latter over paternal love and worldly pressure, and his ex-fiance chose the country over love. Only Mu Chun chose to withstand the pressure and live up to his country and his lover.
Mu Chun is the only person who can give Hu Shanwei a sense of security.
Mu Chun pretended to be relaxed, "You are not dreaming, this is all real, if you don't believe it—"
Mu Chun held her earlobe in his mouth, bit it, and asked, "Does it hurt? It's not a dream."
It was like pain and itch, stirring her heart. Hu Shanwei blushed and his earlobes became even redder. He suppressed his gushing emotions and scolded, "Where did you learn these exquisite mischiefs from?"
Mu Chun just liked to see her soul stirring under her serious and dignified appearance, so he hugged her and said, "When we get married tonight, you will know how much I have learned about these exquisite naughty things over the years."
We boarded the boat at Longjiang Posthouse in the south of the city and headed south. By this time the sun had already set.
In the cabin, two rows of red candles were swaying.
The two men drank from each other and bowed to each other, and the ceremony was completed.
Mu Chun rubbed his hands like a fly. The person in front of him looked delicious and tasty, and he didn't know where to start eating first. He had extensive theoretical knowledge, but zero practical experience.
Hu Shan sat by the bed and waited for a while, but Mu Chun still didn't make a move. He circled around her like a fly, and laughed foolishly from time to time.
Hu Shanwei didn't care about the bride's modesty. He stood up, pushed Mu Chun onto the bed, and pulled off his belt.
The author has something to say: The hole is not finished yet, we will continue tomorrow~ Let’s see if our Chunchun can turn the game around.